rich fruits. So John ate and drank, and looked at the sports and dancing
of the little ones, and it pleased him right well, and he behaved
himself stoutly and wisely, as if he had been a born master.

When the cock had now crowed for the third time, and the little larks
had made their first twirl in the sky, and the infant light appeared in
solitary white streaks in the east, then it went hush, hush, hush,
through the bushes and flowers and stalks, and the hills rent again, and
opened up, and the little men went down. John gave close attention to
everything, and found that it was exactly as he had been told, and,
behold! on the top of the hill, where they had just been dancing, and
where all was full of grass and flowers, as people see it by day, there
rose of a sudden, when the retreat was sounded, a bright glass point.
Whoever wanted to go in stepped upon this. It opened, and he glided
gently in, the grass closing again after him; and when they had all
entered it vanished, and there was no further trace of it to be seen.
Those who descended through the glass point sank quite gently into a
wide silver tun, which held them all, and could have easily harboured a
thousand such little people. John and his man went down into such a one
along with several others, all of whom screamed out, and prayed him not
to tread on them, for if his weight came on them they were dead men. He
was, however, careful, and acted in a very friendly way towards them.
Several tuns of this kind went up and down after each other, until all
were in. They hung by long silver chains, which were drawn and hung
without.

In his descent John was amazed at the brilliancy of the walls between
which the tun glided down. They were all, as it were, beset with pearls
and diamonds, glittering and sparkling brightly, and below him he heard
the most beautiful music tinkling at a distance, so that he did not know